Notes

Le Réveil des Plantes

king of the forest

(You recall the prophet on the subject — I mean the author of Judges, Samuel, Hezekiah or Esdras, who reports Jotham as telling the following parable to the men of Shechem. The trees assembled to appoint a king: the olive, the fig, the vine and the shrub were successively nominated. The last-named accepted, provided those who would not rest under his shade be devoured by the fire emanating from him.)

King of wood

121    It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood. 
122    Stones have been known to move and trees to speak; 

Roy de boys

Raconté par Joathan, cet apologue est un livre de Juges, IX, 8-15. Sollicités d’accepter la royauté, l’olivier, le figuier et la vigne, arbres productifs, se récusant; c’est le buisson d’épines, inutile, qui accepte. Peut-être ne faut-il pas, dans le texte de Rabelais, donner trop de sens à cet apologue, mais n’y voir que la reconnaissance de la suprématie incontestable du Pantagruélion. Chasseneuz qui le cite (Catalogus gloirae mundi, XII, 89) l’interprète au pied de la lettre: «Inter omnes alias arbores, quæ obtinent principatum, et quæ fruit electa in regem lignorum [«Roy de boys»] est Ramnus»; et il reproduit le texte biblique, pour conclure: «Ex quo concluditur, quod tanquam rex extolli debeat ultra omnia alia ligna.»

King of Wood

Very early in its history, Germanic developed the syncretism ‘child’/’wood’. Compare, for example, Engl. chit ‘young of a beast, very young person’ (as in chit of a child, chit of a girl, and the like) and ‘potato shoot’ recorded in the seventeenth century on the one hand and OE cīþ ’shoot, sprout, seed, mote in the eye’ on the other; Germ. Kind ‘child’ and Old Saxon cîthlêk ‘tax on bundles of wood’. The association could have been from ‘offshoot’ to ‘child’, as in imp, scion, stripling, slip, or from ‘chip off an old block’, or even from ‘stub, stump’ (something formless, “swollen”) to ‘child’. In studying the history of German words for ‘boy, lad’, one constantly runs into nouns designating ‘peg, stump, bundle’, etc. (see the etymology of Bengel, Knabe, Knecht, Knirps, and Striezel in etymological dictionaries). The most complete list of such words can be found in Much 1909. In the Scandinavian picture of the world, the descent of human beings from trees (Askr and Embla) finds the well-known complement in skaldic kennings for ‘man’ and ‘woman’. Outside Germania, the Pinocchio myth points in the same direction.

Judges 9

8  The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.
9  But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
10  And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
11  But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?
12  Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.
13  And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
14  Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.
15  And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

la relation du prophete

Ce prophète, c’est l’auteur de Juges, Samuel, ou Ezéchias, ou Esdras. La parabole visée ici se trouve dans la discours de Jonathan aux Sichimites. Les arbres s’assemblent pour élire un roi et proposent successivement cette charge à l’olivier, au figuier, à la vigne, au buisson. Celui-ce accepte, à la condition que ceux qui ne se reposeront pas sous son omber seront dévorés par le feu qui sortira de lui.

la relation du Prophete

Le prophète est Joatha, qui raconte cette apologue dans les Juges, IX, 8 seq.

la relation du Prophète

Juges, IX, 8-15; le buisson acccepta d’être le roi des arbres.

Notes

tant de vertus… tant d’effectz admirables

Pour interpréter le Pantagruelion, il faut se souvenir qu’il mérite plienment son nom.

Notes

l’Idée et exemplaire de toute joyeuse perfection

Constatation importante pour la compréhension du Tiers Livre. Pantagruel est non seulement l’Idée de la joyeuse perfection (au sens platonicien), mais il est aussi l’exemplium que l’on devrait prendre pour modèle (cf. Sarcerius, Dict., « Idea est forma exemplaris » etc.

l’Idée

Au sens platonicien du mot, comme le plus souvent dans le Tiers livre; Pantagruel est défini comme un personnage d’apophtegme. L’emploi du passé composé est ici remarquable, signalant l’ironie de Rabelais face à ce personnage (voir la Notice, p. 1343).